News

Jackson: Don’t Disband AFRC

—Amy McCullough2/21/2014

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Orlando, Fla.—Lt. Gen. JJ Jackson, commander of Air Force
Reserve Command, said disbanding or eliminating AFRC and the organizational
structure below it, including the total integration of Reserve squadrons,
wings, groups, and numbered air forces into the Active Duty portion of the Air
Force should not even be on the table. However, he said the other 40
recommendations put forth by the congressionally mandated commission on the
structure of the Air Force are worth discussing. Jackson, who testified before
the national commission on three separate occasions, said he had no idea the
commission was leaning in that direction, noting commissioners did not even
visit AFRC as they pieced together their report. “This was a complete surprise
to me,” he told reporters at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium here Thursday. Jackson
said there are other ways to achieve similar levels of integration and
efficiency, such as expanding Air Force associations. In addition, eliminating the command
would have a devastating impact on morale in the existing Reserve force as well as
negatively affect recruiting in the future, he added. “The commission did great
work with the task they were given in the timeline they were given,” said
Jackson. “The bottom line is, though, that there are some good pieces in [the
report] that I can agree with and some I cannot.” ​